Jacob: 00:00

Well, you know you know what? I I think I think I've never started an episode. And since it's morning at you guys' place, maybe I'll do

Justin: 00:09

that. That sounds great.

Leon: 00:11

Hey. Can can you hear me? Yep. Yep. Oh, okay.

Leon: 00:14

Alright. Sorry about that.

Justin: 00:16

Yeah. Can you hear me?

Leon: 00:17

Oh, yes. Yep.

Justin: 00:18

I'm glad we're already recording because this should be the intro. We should just go straight in like this.

Jacob: 00:26

So good. Jacob, you wanna start?

Leon: 00:31

No. I I I want I I really wanna start, actually.

Justin: 00:35

Oh, no. There's a battle for first Yeah.

Jacob: 00:38

Oh, kickoff. You guys have to flip for it. Mhmm. I I had some, you know, ecclesiastic Sunday morning music. Was

Leon: 00:46

Oh, yeah. Okay. Then I

Jacob: 00:47

was gonna I was gonna rip for seventeen minutes, though.

Leon: 00:50

Yeah.

Jacob: 00:51

To really get us to really you know, Sunday morning coming in. Get get the But I don't know. But I have you know, I've got a I've got conflicting thoughts about it because it's something that I shouldn't like. Well, then I definitely want it. And then I'm thinking maybe I'm being oversentimental, and that's why I like it.

Jacob: 01:11

Because I was like, oh my god. Why do I like this? Is this any good? But the only reason I think I might play it because had we not met Sunday morning, I would have not played it. But I'm thinking if it was Sunday morning at my place

Leon: 01:24

Yeah. You

Jacob: 01:24

would this was playing, that would soothe me into the day because it's, 3PM here. So

Leon: 01:30

I think I'm ready. I'm ready. Yeah? Yeah.

Jacob: 01:34

How about it?

Leon: 01:35

How about it?

Jacob: 01:36

Episode 11. Episode 11.

Leon: 01:38

So hold on. Are we are we

Justin: 01:39

actually We're going. Yeah. We're it.

Jacob: 01:41

Yeah. We're recording. Okay. We're doing it a different way.

Leon: 01:45

Yeah. Yeah.

Justin: 01:46

With you. We need to we need to mix it up sometimes. You know?

Jacob: 01:49

Yeah. So this is gonna be a you know, I I I figured I figured last last time we met each other, it was a very non note episode. Yeah.

Leon: 01:59

I was thinking

Jacob: 02:00

And so

Leon: 02:01

I it was fantastic. Fantastic film.

Jacob: 02:03

It was an incredible episode, and it got me so much into I wrote to you guys so much into all this Beijing stuff. I've been, like, Beijing ing my way Yeah.

Leon: 02:10

Yeah.

Jacob: 02:10

It's crazy. Through through every Beijing stuff that's there, and it's amazing, amazing stuff.

Leon: 02:15

Yeah. Once again, big up Anne for for Yeah. For cluing us in. That was great.

Jacob: 02:22

And also Moscow's, who I remember. He was the first one who mentioned Beijing. And I was like, Beijing? And then and then Jacques as well, Beijing. And and then so I really got I've been Beijinging since I last spoke to you guys.

Jacob: 02:37

But today, I'm I'm I'm being all sentimental today. Yeah. And all and all melodic. So so I'll just set it up a little, but I'll set it I don't know how this this got into my YouTube somehow. I don't know how it got there.

Justin: 02:49

Those algorithms.

Jacob: 02:51

Yeah. Those algorithms. They do. And this is something I shouldn't be liking because both the music and the singer makes no sense here. And there's also what's he calling?

Jacob: 03:04

Not a director, but a The conductor. A conductor whom I love, but he's just a conductor. He's like a composer who's decided to be a conductor instead of a composer. So so the music and this is a live recording. This is a live recording with a with an orchestra.

Jacob: 03:20

So the the the the composer is Goretsky, Whom I've never, to be honest, I'm sorry if there's people who like him. I've it's been a little bit too ECM ish for me at times. Goretsky can be. Sure. This is a beautiful piece by Goretsky.

Jacob: 03:36

And the person who sings in this totally surprised me because I haven't really thought about this person in twenty years, namely Beth Gibbons of Portushead.

Justin: 03:45

Oh, I know this trance. Yes.

Jacob: 03:47

You know this trance? Fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. And and so she's singing in Polish Yeah.

Jacob: 03:54

This piece. And I played the video of it because I have a video of it. And and I really urge people to put it in the in the the notes because just her face, her anguished face when she sings is just really, really, really amazing. And the person who's the Conductor. Conductor is Penderetsky out of all people.

Leon: 04:17

Oh, wow. Yeah.

Jacob: 04:18

So so very, very strange. So I thought maybe it's a great way of starting this

Leon: 04:22

Sunday morning.

Jacob: 04:23

Beautiful Sunday morning. And how about we try that? And we'll see. I think it's great.

Justin: 04:29

Love it.

Jacob: 19:36

So yeah. That was Henrik Guretsky, third symphony, third final movement with Beth Gibbons on vocals singing in Polish and Christoph Penderetsky conducting for some reason. So Wow. What a crazy piece. Maybe it's all the Beijing I've been listening to, but then this thing got in and I'm like, this is so incredible.

Jacob: 20:02

Like Yeah. What the hell? Just the repetitive nature of the strings and her voice. I mean, this is like the girl from Portishead and suddenly she's got the craziest vocals you can have.

Justin: 20:14

And then she's not the girl from Portishead. I'm sorry.

Leon: 20:17

She's like She

Justin: 20:19

she's the girl from She's the girl from O'Rang. Yes. Yes. Which Which is, you know, part of it was just a bad offshooter.

Jacob: 20:31

Incredible vocals.

Leon: 20:32

Yeah. Respect Beth Gibbons. I mean, the the record she made with Rustin Man

Jacob: 20:38

Oh, yeah.

Leon: 20:38

Was was fantastic. Yeah. I guess I'm not I'm not clued in to to all this world because Nor am I. When you when you named all the three like, Goretzky, Beth Gibbons, and Penderetzky, I didn't think that well, I didn't think that Penderetsky and Beth Gibbons were in the same temporal plane and that they couldn't meet on the same

Justin: 21:03

Don Cherry too. Right? Because there's that Don Cherry and Pender in

Leon: 21:06

the red Oh, that's true. Yeah.

Jacob: 21:07

That's true.

Leon: 21:08

Oh, of course. Yeah.

Jacob: 21:09

Yeah. But you can just see you see Pendertsky there. He's like, okay, Beth. Now it's your turn. Yeah.

Leon: 21:16

But that was a that was a a great way of kicking off a Sunday morning.

Jacob: 21:21

Oh, Sunday morning. No. I thought it would be wonderful just to stay with this way.

Justin: 21:24

Yeah. Oh, you're

Leon: 21:25

welcome. And so it this was one movement of the

Jacob: 21:29

Yeah. Of an entire, I think, symphony. Yeah. It was the third final movement. I think I think it was a few years ago.

Jacob: 21:35

And Penderetsky, he's passed away, think, during COVID, in fact. So he's not alive anymore. But, you know, we went to in Krakow, his his tombstone is actually in Krakow and it's like in the basement of this church. I went with Nikola Kuzicki, saw it. Wow.

Jacob: 21:48

And and the the tombstone looks like something from like, from what? I don't know, from some sci fi film. It's unreal looking. This thing is

Leon: 21:57

Wow. We

Jacob: 21:59

should just somehow Google it, but it looks

Leon: 22:01

like Maybe that should

Justin: 22:01

be the episode graphic was

Leon: 22:04

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Jacob: 22:05

It looks like it looks like something from Tron or something. Oh, sweet. Isn't it? Really bizarre. I'll see if I could find it.

Jacob: 22:12

But, anyway It's great.

Justin: 22:14

Leon, you were eager to go. I've got something that complements that really, really well. But if you want if you're too

Jacob: 22:19

Oh, okay. Hold on. I'll I'll I'll show you guys this thing while I'm at it just really quickly. I'll show you can if you Google it, you'll find it. But let me just share it very, very quickly here.

Jacob: 22:28

Yeah.

Leon: 22:30

Oh, wow. Woah. Okay. Yeah. This is definitely worth Yeah.

Leon: 22:35

That this is the up for sure. It again, this doesn't look like it it should exist Exist? Yeah. Yeah. It is.

Leon: 22:44

It doesn't look like it's It's respecting any laws of gravity.

Jacob: 22:48

No. It isn't.

Justin: 22:49

Yeah. It's gonna be the second time I drop Zarzaur's references in an episode. So I Connor in a in a Yeah. Another cog piece when you eat them. It's great.

Jacob: 23:03

They should put that, like, when you come to Krakow, go see this thing. You know? It's like

Leon: 23:06

Oh, yeah.

Jacob: 23:07

Yeah. Yeah.

Leon: 23:08

Anyway That's thank thank you, Jacob. Yeah. Thank you, Jacob. Well, Justin, I I do have something that

Justin: 23:17

that

Leon: 23:18

could work with it, but it might take it in a slightly different direction. So I don't know if you if you wanna

Justin: 23:24

If you can let me continue the vibe for a little bit longer because I've got the but I'm also open to vibe shift. I just have been die it's actually a piece I've been dying to play for since the beginning of the podcast, and I mentioned this composer before. Proudly, well, I don't know if I'm not not into that stuff, but an amazing Canadian an amazing Canadian composer Saw that coming.

Jacob: 23:46

That I love.

Justin: 23:48

So, yeah, I I think it's really worth this. And I'm playing there's only two versions of this available online, one or unrecorded. One is the world premier, and the other is the English premier. And the English premier, I'm gonna play just simply because it's been listened to a lot less online, and they're both I've listened to both many, many times. And and, the English version, I love I I love them both equally, but this has just been really underheard.

Justin: 24:17

So and shockingly underheard considering what an incredible piece of music it is. So I'm gonna play this. That's, Cassandra Miller. The title of the score comes from Simone Weil, human existence is so fragile, a thing, and exposed to such dangers that I cannot love without trembling. The musical material comes from a handful of recordings of lamenting songs of Epirus by the Greek American fiddler, Alexis Zumbas.

Justin: 53:56

And yeah. I mean, she's, some I I'm so, like, in love with Cassandra Miller's music, and thanks also to Mariel Groven for passing me this track because I wasn't aware of it after a conversation we had about Cassandra Miller.

Leon: 54:18

Yeah. I'm completely gutted.

Jacob: 54:20

Yeah. It's

Leon: 54:22

it's really one of the most beautiful things I've heard in in a really long time. I mean, also, props to the soloist.

Justin: 54:34

Oh, yeah.

Leon: 54:35

The I think Lawrence Power is the violist. Technically flawless, like, completely transparent sound, but so so so much feeling. It's insane. Yeah. It's, like, so much control over something uncontrollable.

Leon: 55:02

Yeah. Yeah. It's incredible, incredible music.

Justin: 55:07

An added layer to what's so crazy about that performance is that he studies not only the tracks of the the the violinist that it was you know, the fiddler that it was inspired by, but also she does this kind of meditation practice where she hums and sings the melodies over and over and over again. And the the the violist soloist is supposed to take as much from those kind of weird mantra experiences that she's having of the melodies as as from the original recordings. So it's like this super crazy compositional process.

Jacob: 55:53

Yeah. That was really, you know, absolutely beautiful. And while I was listening to it, it just kind of I don't know why this came up to me, but it reminded me that really music speaks to you. You know? Like it like it really, really and and sometimes we tend to forget that.

Jacob: 56:07

It's like, you know, you're thinking this is beautiful music. This is a great track. But, like, you'd almost wish that people would speak less and would compose more, you know? And like they in should school, they should just like get kids composing when they're like three years old.

Leon: 56:20

And

Jacob: 56:20

and when you have something on your mind, it's just like make a piece of music because it seems to me so much more like to me, this piece spoke Yeah. So much, you know? And it's almost like it's almost like I understand something on a different level than someone had that someone told me, like, they're not doing fine, they're not doing good, or we're having this problem, or I'm having marital problems or whatever, I'm depressed or whatever. It it's Yeah. Seems to me like music would be a better alternative to speak more with music than with words.

Jacob: 56:48

I know this sounds kind of like a

Justin: 56:50

Oh, it's beautiful.

Jacob: 56:51

You know, like idealistic. But it seems to me like it's so much deeper. And and this piece really, really spoke, really. It's amazing. It's a nice reminder it's a nice reminder to think that music speaks.

Jacob: 57:07

I don't know. I tend to forget that. We just tend to, like, everyone in the world should do it instead of, you know, talking all the time. And this is, yeah, really beautiful.

Leon: 57:29

Yeah. Yeah. We we often forget that the body reacts to to music also. It's Yes. Like you said, Jacob, it's not an aesthetic solely aesthetic experience where it goes straight to the brain.

Leon: 57:41

You know? This is, like, where the the entire our entire meat sack is, like Yeah. Yeah. Is is vibrating along in in different ways. It's it's beautiful.

Leon: 57:55

Yeah.

Justin: 57:55

I love it too. There's quotations from Vile that are inscribed over the score, and one of them is absolute unmixed attention as prayer.

Leon: 58:05

Yeah.

Jacob: 58:07

So Yeah. Nice. I loved also just I loved also just narrative it was. It just went through so many. Like, it it was, yeah, it was amazing.

Leon: 58:15

Thank you so much, Justin. This is, like Yeah. That was amazing. Incredible, incredible discovery for me for sure. The yeah.

Leon: 58:25

The the the composition itself was mind blowing. Yeah. She's incredible. I mean, it starts off and and you think you know what you're in for. And you don't.

Leon: 58:39

No. No. This is this is yeah. It's really, really incredible.

Justin: 58:47

The I really strongly encourage everyone to listen to the other version that's available on YouTube too. That's the world premiere. Like, it's it's I was almost tempted to play them back to back. I won't do it, like, in in my other song that I have a choice for tonight, but it's their it's incredible to listen to the two performances. And they're this I mean, I can't believe this only has, like, 1,800 views on YouTube.

Justin: 59:10

Like, what is wrong with the world? But the, the other one got quite has quite a bit more, but they're they're both really extraordinary and comparing them is really great. And, also, Cassandra Miller's other music is also completely outstanding. And, yeah, there's, like, about six tracks I wanted to play on the on the podcast, and I I'm so excited to finally play. It was, like, when you dropped the Eliane Reddy last time.

Justin: 59:40

I'm like, Cassandra Miller has to be on the pod at some point. Yeah.

Leon: 59:44

Well, yeah, I'm I'm definitely gonna have to investigate because this is definitely some of the best music I've heard in in a long time. Mhmm. So thank you for that.

Jacob: 59:53

Yeah. Was beautiful.

Leon: 59:55

So I do have something to follow this up with. It's in a little bit of a different register, but I just wanna remind people that we actually don't plan the episodes, and they kinda self organize it in astonishing ways. Mhmm. So I'm just gonna get into straight into the the track I have lined up.

Justin: 01:07:21

Wow.

Leon: 01:07:24

So that was Hong Hong Byonky with Hong Sin Cha. That's a piece from an album that came out in 1984, but it was composed in 1975. So Hong Kong Ki is a South Korean musician and composer. He's like the the nation's he was rather the nation's foremost player of the, which is the instrument that we heard, except that traditionally, it's it's plucked. But for this piece that they composed, he used a cello bow to to bow it.

Leon: 01:08:11

And it was it was composed for the the first contemporary music biennial that was happening in Seoul. And he teamed up. He collaborated with Hong Sin Cha, which is the nation's foremost avant garde choreographer and dancer, and she's the one doing the vocals. Wow. And this is just an excerpt of a piece a longer piece called the labyrinth, which is meant to, I guess, describe various the various phases of of human life.

Leon: 01:08:51

So this is actually birth. Wow.

Jacob: 01:08:56

It's it's funny because I was hoping it would go longer.

Leon: 01:08:58

Yeah. Why why did it stop? Yeah.

Jacob: 01:09:01

It's too short.

Leon: 01:09:03

Yeah. It yeah. It's the LP version is, like, eighteen minutes, and then it was rereleased on CD, and they cut it up into different movements. So I I got the the first movement.

Justin: 01:09:16

But Man,

Jacob: 01:09:17

we gotta get the full

Justin: 01:09:18

the full thing. That was like man, I I have a lot of patience and faith in our listeners' patience for the the moment. No. That was that was incredibly on. Wow.

Justin: 01:09:32

Like, what a how is the rest of the the the eighteen minutes?

Leon: 01:09:35

Like, so curious. It it actually goes into very different different places. Right. The the piece was even though he's like a a serious, you know, composer serious. I mean, I'm not Yeah.

Leon: 01:09:51

That's a stupid way of saying it. But rather, he's he's very well respected for his for conserving the traditional aspect of this instrument. He's also respected for his avant garde compositions, but most of his output is actually very traditional oriented. But this album is is kind of a a an outlier in in how experimental it goes. But, yeah, this piece was was improvised with the with the vocalist choreographer and then later notated.

Leon: 01:10:29

So it was all spontaneous composition, but it it really goes into very different different places.

Jacob: 01:10:38

I was just gonna mention it almost has like a Taj Mahal Travelers vibe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Really wonderful.

Justin: 01:10:45

There's also a thing that I'm really blown away by because normally when improv turns into laughing at some point, I hate it really, really, really badly. And that I did not hate. I loved it. Like, it really worked. Really, really you know, you do, like, the kind of goofy shit at the end of the

Jacob: 01:11:03

improv, and it

Justin: 01:11:04

just gets really fucking annoying. But, like, this was respect, and you're incredible. But the like, but the kind of generations after that or how that's become a gesture in a way, like, in this was, yeah. It was really communicative and effective. Mhmm.

Justin: 01:11:21

Really, you know, like, so interesting too. I always wonder how, like, going from Beth Gibbons and Penderichie to the Cassandra Miller to the to this. Like, how does it affect how you hear this? Because I was just raw. Like, I was so raw listening to that.

Justin: 01:11:40

Yeah. For sure. And it just opened up my ears in this really profound way to hear that. Thankfully, that was incredible.

Jacob: 01:11:48

I love this episode. I love this episode. Episode 11.

Leon: 01:11:53

It's always the best episode. It's the

Justin: 01:11:58

best episode.

Leon: 01:11:58

Isn't it isn't it really amazing, like, when, Justin, when you put on the Cassandra Miller after the Gorecki, and I was like, this is a perfect gradient. Like, we make a good gradient.

Justin: 01:12:18

Gradient team. Team gradient.

Justin: 01:12:20

We're gonna get t shirts. That's

Leon: 01:12:23

It's amazing how how that happens.

Jacob: 01:12:26

Yeah. It's really, really true. It's really Really wonderful.

Leon: 01:12:31

Yeah. Episode 11. Yeah.

Jacob: 01:12:34

Okay. So I got something. Let me play something. We'll see how it's gonna gradient with the rest, but I think it'll be fine. I think it'll be fine.

Jacob: 01:12:42

I'm feeling

Leon: 01:12:42

a vibe

Jacob: 01:12:43

shift coming. I'm feeling I've got pressure or something. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see.

Jacob: 01:12:46

So here we go. That was a fractal intermission in our gradient.

Justin: 01:17:19

It was pretty it was pretty fractal.

Jacob: 01:17:24

It was pretty fractal. Yeah. So this is Tom Johnson. It's what is it actually? It's from, I think, like, what what are they called?

Leon: 01:17:34

The Zotero Botzini. Hey, Botzini.

Jacob: 01:17:36

My thing's going out of control. What's interesting about Tom Johnson is that he's he was a student of Morten Feldman, in fact.

Leon: 01:17:42

Mhmm.

Jacob: 01:17:43

And it almost feels like an impish humor of Morten Feldman. And yeah. I don't know why I played that, but it had some sort of strange

Leon: 01:17:53

fractal That's so lovely.

Jacob: 01:17:55

Yeah. Yeah. I love it. If anything, it was a little bit too short. But I loved he he's he died recently and he's got this weird kind of sense of just rhythm and how to play with rhythms and and with very microscopic kind of changes in in the rhythms and how and there's like a play like I said, like an intish playfulness to it.

Jacob: 01:18:13

So and it's so interesting keeping in mind that he's like, a Warren Feldman student because it's so Warren Feldman ish and yet it's completely not as well. Yeah. Yeah. Any case.

Justin: 01:18:23

Yeah. No. He's great. His string quartets are really real didn't you play some other track by

Jacob: 01:18:28

him previously? No. No.

Justin: 01:18:30

I thought

Jacob: 01:18:30

you I think it was a I think it was a Tom John no. Ben Johnston.

Justin: 01:18:34

Ben Johnston. Yeah.

Jacob: 01:18:35

I always

Justin: 01:18:35

get them confused with each other. Yeah. But, yeah, that's that's just because of the names, not because of the music. Yeah. But that's great.

Justin: 01:18:42

That's so good.

Leon: 01:18:44

Just right now, I realized that this was quartet. Yeah. A piece for a quartet. Yeah. And I I the whole time, I didn't I thought it was a solo piece.

Jacob: 01:18:57

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Leon: 01:18:58

Yeah. That's incredible. Wow. That's that's really that's really incredible.

Jacob: 01:19:03

Are they from they're from Montreal, that quartet? Brazilian quartet?

Leon: 01:19:07

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Justin: 01:19:09

They actually played a piece of my friend, Mariel, at a show I saw. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

Jacob: 01:19:15

In any case, something fractal into the mix. Yeah.

Leon: 01:19:18

I love it.

Jacob: 01:19:19

We we we can go back into what we've been doing.

Justin: 01:19:21

Well, I'm struggling. Like, I got two directions that can go after that. One is kind of the same, and then the other is really, really, really different. But it's

Jacob: 01:19:31

I think you should go the same. This was just like an intermission.

Justin: 01:19:33

I know. But it's, like, it's tricky. I mean, the only problem is the same is also long again because it's really hard to do short the same. Yeah. So and the other one is, like, quite short, but it's like, you know what?

Justin: 01:19:45

I'm gonna put the short one on because it's the other one really follows, but I'm like, I drag these episodes to unfathomable length. So I'm gonna do the do the the thing that's a real vibe change, but it's kind of somehow perfect to me. So hopefully but this is one of those ones where I like, you guys roll your eyes sometimes when I play

Leon: 01:20:04

shit like this, so we'll see we'll see. Can't wait.

Jacob: 01:20:08

Yes. Is it isn't isn't that part of the character, though? Yeah. This is this is pushing the the A featured one of us. I will

Justin: 01:20:16

say I can legitimize this choice by its pedigree, at least. Alright. But I love I mean, I fucking love this. I I listened to this album shoveling snow with a horrible fever, like, off my roof for eight hours on repeat in the middle of, like, February this year, and it's, like, one of my all time favorites. It's so soothing.

Justin: 01:20:38

It kept me alive through that so here we go.

Jacob: 01:20:51

Some sea time has a river, a moving

Gary Marks: 01:20:57

line of predestined hours floating in this lake.

Jacob: 01:21:05

It's so easy to believe

Gary Marks: 01:21:08

until I see where it begins and ends. Melting all of the days and nights together. Melting all of the present time with my dreams. Finally reaching the sea. I've been thinking of balance, like sailing, trying to find my way through the changes,

Justin: 01:23:41

Yeah. So if yours was a fractal, mine was a true Normand.

Jacob: 01:23:44

No. Your your Justin, yours totally brought us back to track. I think, you know, we we were like, you know, saying how we we're feeling all their things, then I come with this sting. And this comes back this comes back to where we should. So thank you.

Jacob: 01:24:00

You should have played you should have played your track. What the hell was I thinking?

Justin: 01:24:03

Yes. No. It was great.

Justin: 01:24:05

It was great. It, like like, it was the sand in the oyster.

Jacob: 01:24:08

There was the sand in the oyster.

Justin: 01:24:10

You gotta make the pearl, man.

Leon: 01:24:13

But this is a beautiful. This is so good.

Justin: 01:24:16

This is such an interesting record. This is this guy, Gary Marks. Really, no one cared when he was like, he shows up on, like, weird comps and stuff, like like, you know, that you'll find, like, Ned Doheny on or something like that, you know, that are put out. But this was actually put out on JCOA on Carla Blay's record

Leon: 01:24:35

Mhmm.

Justin: 01:24:36

Wow. And it on label, and it has this incredible lineup of players. Like, John Schofield's on it. There's this incredible vibe player who's super famous. What's his name?

Justin: 01:24:49

Dave Samuels. Yeah. And it like, none of them were known at the time. It's just a bunch of friends hanging out, making music, and the whole record is, like it's so interesting. Like, it makes me wonder, like, why I love Astral Weeks.

Justin: 01:25:04

It's an incredible record. I love Star Sailor. But, like, why does everyone know those records and no one knows this record? You know, it's like these things that like, this is as consistently amazing as those records. And then the funniest thing about this guy is he put, like, a bunch of his records are incredible.

Justin: 01:25:20

Like, there's three or four from the seventies that are really amazing, and he just kept going. And he's still putting out stuff. And Wow. He's also writing novels that have the worst covers on earth, and they're, like, kind of bad self published novels. But they look actually really interesting.

Justin: 01:25:36

Interesting and like Mhmm. It's like just this art machine and and makes incredible work like and Yeah. This is like probably one of my favorite seventies records. Like I just love this record so deeply and it really saved my ass with the fever and the snowstorm all night. Like, I just had this record on repeat for, like, eight hours.

Justin: 01:25:56

It was so great.

Leon: 01:25:57

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was there's something about the the whole palette that's very, like, kinda soft rocky, you know, bread almost.

Justin: 01:26:08

That's the part where I thought you guys were gonna roll your eyes.

Leon: 01:26:10

No. No. No. But the I don't know that. His delivery the the composition also is, like, really, really, really great.

Leon: 01:26:20

Like, it goes it it's not very formulaic. You know?

Justin: 01:26:23

Yeah. Yeah.

Leon: 01:26:24

It's, like, really, really, really pretty stuff.

Justin: 01:26:27

Yeah. Lot of

Jacob: 01:26:28

It's also very, very earthy.

Justin: 01:26:30

It's Yeah.

Jacob: 01:26:32

Yeah. If if if all another thing that just joins all the pieces except the one that I just played is that they're all very earthy. They're all very earthy.

Leon: 01:26:42

Well, you know, a crystal that that comes from Crystal

Justin: 01:26:44

is earth. It's true. It's diamond. It's like it's Earth compressed, basically. Yeah.

Jacob: 01:26:50

Yeah. Thanks for thanks for making me feel better today.

Leon: 01:26:53

It's great. I love it. I love it. Yeah. That was that was really great.

Leon: 01:26:57

It kinda helps the transition also with what I have lined up next. We're we're recording mid August. Rest in peace, Ziyad Raghbani, passed away a couple of weeks ago, the son of Feyrouz.

Jacob: 01:27:19

Oh, okay.

Leon: 01:27:20

He was a an incredible well, he he basically arranged all of Feyrouz's later albums from the seventies on. And he was also a playwright, a communist, you know, Hezbollah, a sympathizer, infatigable advocate of the Palestinian cause. And yeah. So you he was basically he basically got a hero's burial a couple weeks ago. So I'm just gonna play a piece from one of his plays from the seventies.

Justin: 01:34:08

Episode 11, man. Wow. Wow.

Leon: 01:34:13

Yeah. That was a piece called Esma Yareda composed by Ziyad Rathbani and sung by Joseph Saker and taken from a play called from the the seventies, which translates to what about tomorrow. And it's a play that was set during the Lebanese civil war in a snack bar. And this piece has one of the characters lamenting to another about the the state of of just daily life, basically, during the the civil war. I just wanna read a couple of the lyrics translated.

Leon: 01:35:02

Yesterday, we ate my salary, and we were full. We included everyone who was with us. We got up in the morning, and we were hungry again. We had to eat again. We had to eat again.

Leon: 01:35:12

We had to eat again. It's a disaster by god. So Ziyad Ravbani is was the son of Ferruz and Assir Raghbani who, in the fifties, really pushed to modernize Arabic music and is basically responsible for the modern Arab sound. So his father passed away when he was 16. At that point, his mother, Firuz, was already, like, a superstar.

Leon: 01:35:51

And she picked up the mantle at 16 and arranged the first track for his mother in memory of his father. And it's, yeah, incredibly talented person, very strong willed, you know, had very strong convictions. Very divisive in the in the Lebanese community because of different class issues and and such. But, yeah, incredibly important voice also in the in the music world. This this record is is kind of a gem for all the the Crate Diggers because the rest of the album of the soundtrack rather, the musical interludes are all kind of bossa nova and and and jazz and and funk.

Justin: 01:36:56

Yeah. This weird little funky horn hit in the middle of

Jacob: 01:36:59

the track. My mind

Justin: 01:37:00

was blown. I'm like, what just happened? That was so crazy.

Leon: 01:37:04

Yeah. And it also includes the first version of La Bosta, which is one of Fairu's most enduring hits, which is like a in her version of it, it's like a big disco, like, full on anthem. And that's, like, super timeless classic for for many people. But this this contains the first version, which is not a a disco version at all. But yeah.

Jacob: 01:37:36

Yeah. That was really beautiful.

Justin: 01:37:38

Do you have any idea if him and Edel Adnan crossed paths? Because they're Oh, wow. Yeah. Would be amazing. Because I've just been on this Edel Adnan kick, and I it seems like they'd be very sympathetic with each other.

Leon: 01:37:53

Yeah. But, I mean, she she was so outspoken that he was kind of all all over he he was a very big cultural figure.

Justin: 01:38:05

Yeah. That's why I mean, I was thinking because she I mean, she was too. So just thinking they must have I can imagine them either loving or hating each other.

Leon: 01:38:14

Well, you know what? It looks like hold on. Oh, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Sorry.

Leon: 01:38:20

I I thought I I had

Justin: 01:38:21

You discovered some I'll look into it. But, yeah, it's just I mean, it was perfect timing because I'm just reading saint Murray's Murray Rose right now, and that was particularly powerful reading that that that time. Yeah.

Jacob: 01:38:33

You know, speaking of speaking of Hezbollah, I'm reminded of this thing that once Nasrallah was murdered or killed Yeah. Yeah. You know, I watched on the Internet. There was like a prayer that they did for Nasrallah with a khanai, one of the rare occasions that he that he did a or not a mass, but I guess, like a prayer. And it was amazing because they had speakers all over Tehran just so that they can hear him, you know, do the prayer.

Jacob: 01:38:59

And then he had this amazing moment where he would be praying to himself like under his breath. And and that would go into the speakers. And so you it was this amazing, like, very personal, intimate, almost like a rumbling, like a murmur.

Leon: 01:39:14

Mhmm.

Jacob: 01:39:14

And the speakers were just blasting this, like, rumbling little murmur. This it was just incredible to me, this kind of presence of, like, the whole city is hearing this man's inner, you know, rumbling really, really amazing in terms of just just sound and music. I mean, you know, really amazing.

Justin: 01:39:34

All the music today is speaking.

Jacob: 01:39:36

God. I'm scared to put I don't know what to put next. I'm scared now. Okay. I'm gonna try to put something.

Jacob: 01:39:45

So this is actually just a compilation that came across and a really beautiful piece. The compilation is called Behind the Iron Curtain. So it's kind of like spiritual jazz behind the Iron Curtain from that era.

Leon: 01:39:55

Wow.

Jacob: 01:39:55

And this is a piece from Estonia out of all places and Wow. Maybe maybe it'll speak as well somehow. So let's give it a try. Let's hope I make it better this time around. So Estonia is so full.

Jacob: 01:42:30

So again, this is from behind the iron curtain is a compilation, and the band is called Balaj, and the piece is called Halb Serp Bad Sickle. And and, yeah, I mean, I love it sounds European. It sounds perhaps Estonian, but it just also sounds just so soulful. It sounds like it's from New York, and it feels timeless. It's a beautiful piece of music.

Leon: 01:42:51

I agree. Yeah. It's really beautiful. Really, really beautiful.

Justin: 01:42:55

I'm so excited to relisten this episode because it was so good that I was scrambling to find what I'd play after.

Jacob: 01:43:03

Yeah. Sorry. This is like two minutes. No. This is a lot of work.

Justin: 01:43:06

What do I play after that? Oh my god.

Jacob: 01:43:09

Yeah. When when the saxophones kick in, it just feels like Coltrane. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Jacob: 01:43:14

For sure. Really, really beautiful.

Justin: 01:43:16

Yeah. It's incredible.

Jacob: 01:43:17

Really, really nice.

Leon: 01:43:18

Did you say the band's name was Collage? Did I hallucinate that?

Jacob: 01:43:22

Or or I mean, that's what it says.

Leon: 01:43:24

Because it's totally a collage. Yeah. I mean, that that was the impression that I got. Yeah. It it worked so well, the the transition from from the choral Yeah.

Leon: 01:43:33

It was amazing. To the jazz. Yeah. It's beautiful.

Jacob: 01:43:37

Too short. A lot of this stuff is too short here.

Justin: 01:43:40

What do you know about, like, do you know anything about this, really?

Jacob: 01:43:44

You know, I I I've become I've become a lazy person. Good. Good. I I I just they come my way, and I take them as

Leon: 01:43:53

they are.

Jacob: 01:43:54

Yeah. So so I really apologize to our listeners. I'm not giving any insightful things about it, but it does sound beautiful.

Justin: 01:44:02

It was incredible.

Leon: 01:44:03

How's the how's the rest of the compilation?

Jacob: 01:44:05

Well, it's not as good. Oh, okay. You know you know, some some of the stuff you can already kind of there's a certain European kind of jazz sound and even Polish jazz has a certain sound. Some of it is nice, but there's a sound. And as soon as I heard this, felt like, wow, this is completely not that sound.

Jacob: 01:44:22

Like it just feels like and out of Estonia too, out of all places, like what is Estonia? It's a small little, you know, country and then this thing comes out that just feels so soulful and it feels so timeless and it feels Yeah. Just it's what I love in jazz, essentially, that has Yeah. All of it. So it was a nice nice surprise.

Jacob: 01:44:41

Yeah.

Justin: 01:44:44

Well, I got something to play after that that I scrambled, and it's it's frustrating because there's a this is a chance because I love this record so much, and I don't know which track to play off of it. I was, like, quickly clicking through them to try and find the one that I thought, but they're all so good that I'm just, like, in trying to find the one that's right after that. So I'll play this, and we'll see. We'll talk about it afterwards. But this is a like, the whole record's insane.

Justin: 01:45:14

It's so hard not to play the whole record. It's so hard to pick a track off that record. This is Sylvia Tirazzi, and she is one of the closest people with Eliane Redig. She's one of her primary Right. Okay.

Justin: 01:51:04

This is the interpreters. Right. And her record this is really probably my favorite record of the twenty twenties. It's nice to play relatively new music, and she's made other music since that's great. But this record is utterly incredible, like, from start to finish, and it's almost impossible to pick a track.

Justin: 01:51:23

I think that felt complimentary to what you just played. So I tried to just be the most complimentary of of the record, but I everyone in the world needs to listen to this record. It's the greatest record ever. It's incredible.

Leon: 01:51:36

So, Sylvia Taurotzu is is mostly known as a violinist.

Jacob: 01:51:40

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Leon: 01:51:42

It's it blows my mind. This is incredible. It's

Justin: 01:51:44

No. It's like, and it's just scratching the surface. Like, this record go like, I think, you know, the Luciano Silio record that was such a, like, big deal that Jim O'Rourke remastered and re released. And, like, this record is comparable emotionally on some level to that on the big emotional arc of it, but, like, better and deeper and richer and more complex. And it's like, it is so epically brilliant, this record.

Justin: 01:52:16

It's really, yeah. So I can't I I couldn't even I can't even find the words to to talk about how much I love this record. It's got, like, a Marissa Monty thing too, like, bit like the Bestiere record touches on that kind of terrain too. It's yeah. It's so she's, like, genius.

Justin: 01:52:37

Genius. Genius.

Jacob: 01:52:38

Well, I've never heard of her at all. She's really beautiful, distracts, crazy sounding.

Justin: 01:52:43

Yeah. She's really, really something. It's it's and again, music that I'm like, why does everyone in the world not know this record? And almost every time I've ever played it, people are like, what is this? How come I haven't heard this?

Leon: 01:52:55

Do you know who the the guitarist is?

Justin: 01:52:58

I don't, actually. I don't know anything about who plays on this record. I should because I've got the record, and I just haven't paid attention to it. I gotta I'll I'll dig it up

Leon: 01:53:09

and let you really good good guitar.

Justin: 01:53:11

Yeah. Incredible. I'll we'll put it in the show notes after I look it up.

Jacob: 01:53:15

Yeah. Oh, I also love how they go through so many iterations. It goes from something like some sort of collage thing, and then it heads, again, very narrative, but super compressed in the narrative arc there. It was amazing.

Justin: 01:53:25

Yeah. Finally, I played a short song.

Jacob: 01:53:29

Yeah. Two two in this episode. It's great. I feel like because they were so short, I want more. I'm like, I feel just unfulfilled that I want more, more, more, more.

Justin: 01:53:39

Oh my I I mean, I just could get this record the second you put off the the the show and

Leon: 01:53:44

That's what I was, Yeah. That's what I was gonna do. But there's so much so much homework after this episode. Like, there's so many things to to dig into. My god.

Leon: 01:53:55

This is

Justin: 01:53:55

what the show's supposed to do. That's what happened when people came to the store. They Yeah. Except it doesn't cost any money. Know?

Justin: 01:54:04

So charge we people for it.

Leon: 01:54:08

Right. Wow. What a what what great music.

Justin: 01:54:12

Mhmm. Episode 11.

Leon: 01:54:13

I guess I'm I'm gonna close it out. I'm gonna close it out with a closing track from an album that kinda is pretty can complement that well, but maybe in a in a different palette. Yeah. So that was Marnie Webber with songs hurt me at the the closing track from the her first album songs hurt me from 1988. She's, like, really awesome multi multi what's that what's that word?

Leon: 01:59:45

Multidisciplinary artist from Los Angeles who's still making art and music now. She's most well known for doing the artwork for Sonic Youth's a thousand leafs, like the the collage on the cover. That's one of hers. But, actually, that collage and this song are both sort of pretty and fragile. But this is only, like, I guess, 10% of her entire spectrum of her her range because most of her artwork and music is really unsettling.

Leon: 02:00:22

Like, the rest of this album is harrowing. It is fantastic. It's like it gets into, like, industrial almost territory. But she has this really amazing way of balancing, like, you know, beauty and abjectness and stuff. Like, the the artwork she's doing now, she does a lot of sculptures with clowns.

Leon: 02:00:47

So just that is kind of enough to to indicate to what what she's what she's doing.

Jacob: 02:00:58

Yeah. That was a great track. That was a great last track for this episode, I think. It was beautiful. Yeah.

Justin: 02:01:02

Yeah. I was gonna say because you, like, you brought the gradient to complete closure. We should not play the the outro music this episode.

Jacob: 02:01:14

I think we

Justin: 02:01:14

should just leave it there. Like, we have no intro music, no outro music. This is the the perfect gradient. It was that was really incredible. Also, like, the the sound quality of that is mind bending.

Justin: 02:01:29

Like Yeah. It like, the drums are, like, recorded in another country. Like, they're, like it's, like, so they're broadcast over shortwave radio from John Duncan's basement or something.

Jacob: 02:01:41

I don't

Leon: 02:01:42

know what's going on. But also the drum playing Yeah. Is amazing. I love the drums on that track.

Jacob: 02:01:49

Yeah. That BPM is really wonderful. It's same

Justin: 02:01:53

it's the same BPM as the Gorevsky piece, actually. Wow. What an episode. Guys, I love this thing so much. I was feeling a bit reluctant to do this episode today just because my life is hectic, and and I'm so glad we did it.

Justin: 02:02:14

Like, this 9AM start

Leon: 02:02:16

Yeah. It was very accommodating.

Justin: 02:02:19

Oh, no. It's really, really like, I don't know what I was thinking. This is the greatest thing in my life. You guys are the best. Thanks for this amazing time.

Jacob: 02:02:27

And, yeah, no no disrespect to Tom Johnson, but I do apologize for

Justin: 02:02:32

the great.

Justin: 02:02:34

It was dude, there's no pearl without that. That was my favorite.

Justin: 02:02:38

It was like, was really gritty and like Yeah.

Gary Marks: 02:02:41

Was perfect.

Justin: 02:02:41

I loved

Leon: 02:02:41

it. No. It's beautiful. It was absolutely beautiful.

Justin: 02:02:45

Loved it.

Jacob: 02:02:46

I I was just gonna say, do wish we didn't have to wait a month. It's really, really always

Leon: 02:02:50

Yeah. So excited.

Jacob: 02:02:52

Bittersweet to to always end them because really wonderful.

Justin: 02:02:56

Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, guys.

Leon: 02:02:58

But we'll catch you next time.

Jacob: 02:03:02

Yeah. See you, friends. Bye.

Justin: 02:03:04

See you, friends. Was translating Korean.

Jacob: 02:03:11

Our international audience. That's great. Yeah.

Leon: 02:03:21

That was great.

Jacob: 02:03:22

Okay. Good. See you next time, guys.

Justin: 02:03:23

See you guys.

Leon: 02:03:24

That was Yeah. Thanks.

Jacob: 02:03:25

Thank you.

Leon: 02:03:25

Take it easy.